Europe Union weary from growing pains

[Strengthandhonour]

"Europe Union weary from growing pains
By Mark Rice-Oxley, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor Fri Sep 29, 5:00 AM ET


LONDON - When Britain threw open its doors to workers from Eastern Europe two years ago, plumbers like Keith Millar didn't know what to expect. Official projections anticipated a few thousand pioneers would take advantage of their new status as EU members and seek new lives in Britain, a drop in the ocean for a work force of 30 million. "

source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20060929/wl_csm/odrawbridge

[Menydh]

Good news article!

In reality, more than half a million came, two thirds of them from Poland - and many of those tradesmen like Mr. Millar.

"It's not a level playing field any more," he says, grumbling about the cheap Polish workers muscling in on his business. "I'll do a boiler estimate for a client and they say they'll think about it. Then I go back a few weeks later and find they've had the boiler installed. These Poles are hardworking and they do the job for half the price."

Millar's concerns are symptomatic of a deep fatigue in Europe with the idea of expansion. Old notions of uniting Europe in one large happy bloc and spreading peace, prosperity, and stability to all four corners of the continent are getting lost in more gritty concerns: Will poorer eastern members dilute the wealth of "old Europe"? Will a Lithuanian welder come and take my job? Is the EU club getting too big, unwieldy - unmanageable even?

This week, the EU gave the green light to Bulgaria and Romania to join in January 2007, expanding the union to 27 countries and nearly 500 million people. But it did so in almost grudging fashion, setting strict conditions for membership and allowing curbs on migrant workers from the two countries. So far, only Finland says it will welcome Bulgarian and Romanian migrant workers.

In Spain, we already have our share of Poles and the numbers of Romanians --especially in my area-- is too big already. If we get more Romanians with the entrance of Romania in the EU, the rejection of people --which is already high-- is going to increase much.

Cheap labour? Sure. But many people who have employed them have regretted it already

"Our customers are happy," says self-employed Polish builder Marek Flaszka. "We are cheaper, but we give the same guarantees."

This is nonesense. They are cheaper, yes. But most do cowboy works. And then, who are you going to complain? Often you hear people saying that when they took them for the job their understanding of Spanish was pefect. But, when they had to complain, all of a sudden their understanding of Spanish fell dramatically to the levels of not being able to communicate with them. How very convenient!

Still, if I have to be fair, Poles are much more skilled than any other group of foreigners here. I wouldn't mind them if I knew that they are likely to return home after a few years, even if in a decade. But I fear that that's not what most of them have in mind.